2014 Best in Category: Countertop Cooking & Beverage Appliances

SodaStream USA

SodaStream Source Home Soda Maker

The SodaStream Source home soda maker, named Best in Category at the 2014 Housewares Design Awards in Countertop Cooking & Beverage Appliances, from concept to creation was intended to be iconic, employing the principles of design at every step in the process. “When we came to design the Source we wanted this to be our iPhone,” Yaron Kopel, SodaStream chief innovation and design officer told HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®. “We wanted this product to represent how the future of home soda makers should look.”

Saying that is one thing, achieving it another and Kopel noted that the company needed to overcome myriad challenges to enable the product to deliver on expectations. Teaming with designer and sustainability advocate Yves Behar, SodaStream undertook the design of the Source with the goal of developing not only a product that would serve as the foundation for all future designs, but also one that minimized the use of chemical process. “What that means is we did not want to paint the product, which meant we had to inject the color into the plastic while in the molding process,” Kopel said. “In order to get the high-gloss finish we wanted meant three times more expensive molds.”

In addition to its unique look the Source also employs new technologies that while not present on any SodaStream product that preceded it, will be utilized on each new model going forward. The bottle attachment mechanism, which originally required consumers to screw the bottle onto the carbonation nozzle, has been replaced by a snap and lock mechanism that allows users to attach and detach bottles before and after carbonation.

The Source also uses a unique carbonation activation method that simply requires the user to press down on the top of the unit; simpler for the consumer, but more complex for the company. “The slider design required much more sophistication to create,” said Kopel, adding that in future versions of the product the slider will be improved even further. At present when consumers press the slider down it must be returned to its original position manually before pressing for additional carbonation. In the future the slider will return to its original ready position after each push.

For SodaStream, the process of design goes on. “For us the value of design is huge,” said Kopel. “Our definition of innovation is closing the gap between the ideal user experience, and the current one.”